Rebuking Gingrich

Democrats are eagerly chastising Newt Gingrich for his claim that Barack Obama governs according to a “Kenyan, anticolonial” mentality. But that’s not at all surprising. The more interesting question is whether any Republicans will follow suit. At least one prominent conservative pundit already has. Says National Review‘s Ramesh Ponnuru:

I think that it is a mistake to imagine that Obama is a deeply mysterious figure, as opposed to a conventional liberal. He is no stranger than contemporary liberalism is.

As for the underlying D’Souza article that inspired Gingrich, what is there to be said? When last was there such a brazen outburst of race-baiting in the service of partisan politics at the national level? George Wallace took more care to sound race-neutral….

Conservatives object to the Obama administration as too expensive, too regulatory, too intrusive, too beholden to Democratic special interest groups, and too apologetic about America’s role in the world. It’s a libel to claim that we object to the administration as too black or too alien. Bad enough when the libel is issued by liberals. Much worse when it is heard from our own writers, from magazines that speak to us, from political leaders who would speak for us.